The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) will hear oral evidence from the Constitutional Court and Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe on a date yet to be announced, it said on Saturday.
Spokesperson Marumo Moerane said the JSC had decided to hear the evidence due to ”conflicts of fact on the papers placed before it”.
Moerane said Hlophe’s lawyers made an application to the JSC for certain members of the commission to recuse themselves.
He said notice of the date and venue of the oral hearing would be made known once arrangements had been finalised.
Judge Hlophe is accused of approaching some of the Constitutional Court’s judges improperly as they were deliberating over cases involving African National Congress president Jacob Zuma.
In an affidavit to the JSC, leaked this week, the embattled Hlophe paints a picture of a court in disarray. According to him, Constitution Hill is mired in plotting, bullying and racism.
A key theme of his 71-page submission is his attempt to isolate the court’s two most senior judges, Chief Justice Pius Langa and his deputy, Dikgang Moseneke, as the key plotters against him.
He argues that they strong-armed the two judges central to the complaint, Bess Nkabinde and Chris Jafta, into making statements against their will about their meetings with Hlophe, with ulterior motives.
”[Langa and Moseneke have] an inexplicable desire to get rid of me, to get me impeached and to suggest that I am not fit to be a judge any more. That kind of bandwagonism [sic] has been in vogue since I published my racism report a few years ago.” – Sapa, M&G reporter